Moon Magic
by Espeon Master Espo
Summary: Everypony thought they knew what happened when Nightmare Moon was defeated. Luna was never going to correct them either, but something changed, and now, she will reveal what happened during her banishment and that night. 'Based off of Harry Leferts story, 'The Wizard and The Lonely Princess.'
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Twilight sighed as she sat down for the night, using her magic to pull a book off the shelf to read. It had been a long day managing the library, with many ponies stopping by and dropping off or checking out books. Even Rarity, her friend and a fellow Unicorn, had been by to choose a fitting dress color that would work well against the different purples in Twilight's mane and tail. And now she was ready to be off her hooves and ready for a nice calm relaxing night. But before she could even start reading, she noticed somepony walking by the window to her library, one that she recognized as well.

Blinking in surprise, her tiredness forgotten, Twilight got up and trotted over to the window and looked outside. She was right too, on who she thought she had seen. It was Princess Luna. But this was weird as Luna snuck off into the darkness heading out of town. As she was the princess and guardian of the night, for her to be sneaking around meant something really big or weird was going on, possibly both.

Twilight was off at once, out the door, following the blue colored mare away from the town. Twilight blinked when she noticed a large wooden box on Luna's back as she passed through spots of moonlight. After seeing it a few more times, she was sure it was the same one that held the Elements of Harmony, the most powerful items in Equestria.

Soon they reached the forest that was a little ways outside the town. Twilight stopped for a few moments, not sure if she should continue. The Everfree Forest was considered to be one of the most dangerous places a pony could venture. But before Twilight could decide if she really wanted to risk following Luna into the forest, somepony spoke behind her, causing her to jump rather high into the air in surprise.

"Twil, what are you doing out here?" asked Applejack, another close friends and a cowboy hat wearing Earth pony with an orange coat and blonde mane and tail done up in ponytails.

Twilight spun around as she landed, glaring lightly at her friend as she almost yelled, "Don't do that!"

"Okay, but you still have not answered the question," Applejack said, looking at Twilight.

"I am following Luna," Twilight said. However, when she looked back towards the forest, Luna had vanished fully from sight.

"Luna, as in Princess Luna?" Applejack asked confused.

"Yes, as in, the Princess Luna, and thanks to you scaring me, I lost track of her," Twilight said slightly exasperated.

"Well, let's go and get Rainbow Dash, she can help us find her again," Applejack said, walking towards her friend's cloud home.

"Fine, but we had better hurry up then, if we want to have any chance of finding Luna again," Twilight said, setting out at a gallop that was soon matched by Applejack.

"Okay, but why do we need to find her? I am pretty sure Luna can take care of herself," Applejack asked, looking at her long time friend.

"Because Luna had the Elements of Harmony with her, and for some reason she did not want to be seen at all. And as much as I may trust her, that still deserves some looking into," Twilight said as they moved rapidly towards the floating house of clouds belonging to Rainbow Dash, their Pegasus friend.

"But why would she need those? Or, for that matter, why would she be sneaking around?" Applejack asked, though it was mostly a question to herself.

"I am not sure, but it cannot be any good," Twilight said, looking slightly worried.

"But you proved she was completely normal during the Nightmare Night Festival just a few days ago. Why would you think she would start something bad now when she was so willing to make friends then? It just does not make sense," Applejack said thoughtfully.

"No clue, but I plan on finding out," Twilight said, putting on a burst of speed before skidding to a halt below Rainbow Dash's house.

Twilight groaned, remembering one slight problem with Applejack's idea of getting Rainbow Dash to help them. They were on the ground, and Rainbow Dash's house was nearly thirty if not more feet floating above them without any way to access it from the ground. And the house was also slightly soundproofed thanks to the clouds Rainbow Dash used to build it. So she did the only thing a Unicorn in her position could do and used her magic to make a rather large air horn and blasted the castle full of sound. It took less than a second before a blue mare with rainbow colored mane and tail appeared, flying out the main door and kicking said blow horn right into the ground.

"What was that for?" Rainbow Dash yelled out as she came down and landed by them, looking rather annoyed.

"Sorry, I needed to get you up quickly in case you were asleep," Twilight said before pointing to the Everfree Forest and explaining what was going on.

"I see. Well, I can find her," Rainbow said, taking off quickly towards the forest.

Twilight just nodded as Applejack and she took off back towards the forest and the main path through it. Quickly they entered into the forest and followed the path, soon reaching one of the few splits in the path. Here they would have to wait for Rainbow Dash.

"Found her, she is headed for the old palace it seems," Rainbow Dash said, swooping down and hovering above them.

"I see, how far ahead of us is she?" Twilight asked as she and Applejack took off at a gallop while Rainbow Dash flew alongside them.

"Nearly at the old bridge that was broken down when we first came here. Also, she seems very worried about something," Rainbow Dash said, looking slightly concerned.

"Did she say anything about what she was worried about, or were you too far away?" Twilight asked.

"Moved by too quickly when I passed her, searching that path, so I did not have enough time to hear anything. Then I turned back and returned here at top speed," Rainbow Dash said.

Applejack looked at the other two, "I may not be as smart as you, Twilight, but I do think it sounds like she stole the Elements."

"Yes I know, and since I know where we are going, get ready to teleport," Twilight said, her horn glowing a soft purple color.

Twilight did not wait for a reply before she teleported them. They vanished with a small flash of purple light, to reappear a second later at the site of the old castle they had once been to around two years back. They had defeated Nightmare Moon during that time and had freed Luna from her own dark side. And now it looked like they were going to have to stop Luna as well.

As they entered into the castle, they could hear Luna talking, but it was hard to tell where she was, as her voice was very faint. Twilight looked at the pedestal where the elements had once rested when they had first visited this castle, before looking at her friends.

"Okay, split up and search!" Twilight said.

"Right!" was the reply from Twilight's two friends.

But before they could move an inch a flash of light came from another room, alerting them to Luna's location. She was in what had once been the throne room. Sneaking up, Twilight peaked in with the others and saw Luna casting some weird magic as markings formed on the floor, moving out from five different points in the room. At each of these five points sat one of the Elements with the sixth element, the Element of Magic, being worn by Luna herself as she worked.

Twilight sighed, speaking in little more than a whisper, "I cannot see what that mark is for sure. Rainbow, can you move about and check on what it looks like?"

"Sure, but how can that help?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Some spells use special marks called runes; I never got this far in my training as it is rather far up there in terms of difficulty. If you can describe for me for sure what it is, then maybe I can figure out what we are dealing with," Twilight said, explaining quietly.

Rainbow Dash nodded, but, before she could move, the ground seemed to shift around them, causing all three of them to nearly yell out in fear. The magical symbol pulsed twice and the ground stopped shaking. Luna stopped her chanting and her horn lost its glow, though the rune remained glowing.

"Come on out, you three," Luna said rather softly.

Twilight sighed and lead the way out as her two friends followed, before asking, "How did you know we were here?"

Luna pointed to Rainbow Dash with her hoof, "I knew you were following as soon as I saw her do a flyby before. And I saw the flash of magic of your teleportation spell."

"Oh. Might I ask what you're doing with the Elements of Harmony and sneaking about?" Twilight said, jumping right back to business.

"I am using them to make a portal that can lead to another world," Luna said rather bluntly, causing all three of the ponies watching her to blink in surprise.

"A portal that leads to another world," Applejack said in surprise, "I did not know such a thing was even possible."

"Yes, I have some business there with Night, my twin sister. Or as you probably know her, Nightmare Moon," Luna said, causing all three of the other ponies to again look at her in complete surprise and shock.

"But she was destroyed when we used the Elements to free you from her two years ago," Twilight said confused.

"No, Night was not destroyed. She was merely teleported to another world, where she would be safe to live out her life without threat from somepony attacking her, till I could bring her back to this world. But something has happened, so I must go and see her. And most likely bring her back to this world," Luna said as the lines of the rune, a star Twilight now realized, began to glow brighter as the rune slowly filled in with a pale blue light.

"We cannot let you do that," Twilight said, wondering why Luna would bring back someone so evil.

"I am afraid it is not up to you. I have been planning on bringing her back for nearly a year, though it was only within the last half year that I gained a reason to do it quickly," Luna said, looking back at the star.

"What do you mean, plan? She was in control of you from the time you were sealed in the moon! Why would you want to bring her back?" Twilight asked as Applejack and Rainbow Dash moved to either side of her in case this came to blows.

"We were never one pony once we were sealed into the moon. And a week before it was time for our return we made a deal so we could both live a happy life. It was actually you who helped us make it possible when you used the Elements to try and stop her," Luna said, stepping backwards while the now filled in star glowed even bright than before.

"But how? There was no way we would have helped her," Twilight said confused.

"Actually you did. We knew about all six elements well before you were even born, and wielded them to stop Discord a long time ago. I myself was the bearer of the Element of Magic," Luna said as realization dawned on Twilight, "And I knew that someone would know the legend of Nightmare Moon. Thus, Nightmare and I set up a few tests to see if you and your friends would truly be able to wield them."

"Tests? Those were no tests, that was Nightmare trying her best to stop us and you know it!" Twilight said angrily.

To their surprise Luna laughed rather loudly at this before saying, "You really think if Night had wanted to stop you that any of you would have been able to even reach the castle? Remember, she beat down three of Celestia's best guards without even drawing upon her Unicorn powers! To beat you six, if she had really wanted to, would have been beyond easy."

"So you were with her all along?" Twilight asked angry.

"Yes, though it is not as bad as you make it sound, Twilight. She is not evil like you may think, but as it is, I don't have time to explain. I must be going," Luna said, before turning around and dashing into the light.

"After her! We cannot let her bring back Nightmare Moon!" Twilight said, charging forward into the light followed by her two friends.

They were blinded and not able to see anything before they reappeared in a different world, crashing to the ground. They slowly got up, regaining their sight enough to see they were in a rather large forest. Luna was moving about, collecting the glowing Elements of Harmony that had reappeared on this side of the portal. As she put the last one back into the box she finally noticed them and sighed.

"This is going to give me a headache," Luna said, trotting over.

Twilight got ready to fight but without warning she and her two friends fell asleep as Luna's horn glowed. Luna sighed again and shook her head, "Well I may not be where I want, but hopefully I will be able to get some help from these three. In the meantime I need to find out what has been going on."

With that, she set up a protection spell over the three before she vanished into the night.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Twilight groaned as she slowly came to. She had a killer headache and her body seemed to ache a little bit everywhere, thanks to sleeping in a weird position. Rubbing her hoof against her head, she looked about the area and noticed they seemed to be in the Everfree Forest. But as her memories returned she realized that this was not likely the truth. Slowly Twilight stood up and noticed her two friends, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, were still around and unharmed.

Sighing, Twilight moved over to them and tried to wake them, but it seemed both of them were still stuck fast asleep thanks to Luna's spell. Twilight realized the blue Alicorn was nowhere to be seen. Looking around she moved to check to see if they were truly alone, but before she had gone too far Twilight ran into a large magical barrier. She could tell it was made by Luna, but it was too powerful for her to break without aid from another Unicorn.

Twilight sighed and laid down on the ground. There was nothing she could really do till either one of two things happened. The first being her friends waking up, in which case maybe she could figure out a way to break the barrier holding them with their help. The second being Luna returning and releasing them, though that could take a long time.

But to Twilight's surprise, only a few minutes after laying down Luna trotted up. Twilight blinked getting up and walked over to where Luna was going to enter. Luna touched the barrier with her horn causing it to fall and break apart with the sound of shattering glass.

"Well hello, Princess Luna," Twilight said, giving her a light glare.

"Hello again, Twilight, sleep well?" Luna asked, looking slight annoyed. Whether it was from the glare, or something else, Twilight could not tell yet.

"I would have if you had laid me down properly! But that doesn't matter now. What is going on and where are we?" Twilight asked rather angrily.

"I guess I should explain better now that we have time to actually talk, but first I must wake those two," Luna said, sighing as she moved over and used a spell to wake the other two sleeping ponies.

Once they were awake and ready to listen, Luna spoke, "Well, as you three already know, we are or were heading to another world. And as you can guess, we already have entered into that world."

"But why are we here to begin with, and for that matter, why are we here for Nightmare Moon?" Applejack asked confused.

"I will start from the beginning," Luna said sighing.

"The beginning, as in when you were sealed?" Twilight asked.

"Not so far back. It started a few years before I was released from the sealing to return home. I was at my wits' end mentally. At the time, Night was still very dark and evil. Normally, during my years of banishment, she would only come to torment me about every two years or so. But as we got into the last few years of our banishment, her attacks increased in both amount and strength," Luna said, a sad look in her eyes as she thought back to that time.

"But couldn't you banish her or something yourself?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"No, while I was banished, much of my magical power was sealed. And since she was made from my own magic to begin with, I could not actively do anything to physically harm her, though the same was true for her attacking me. But this did not stop her from using mental tactics to get at me. So as the time grew closer to our release, my resolve to be the one to return started to weaken increasingly more. But before I could fully break, something happened that I did not expect," Luna said, her sad look slowly changing to a small smile.

"A young one appeared on my side of the moon, he looked much like the apes we know of but with much less fur. He, like me, was dealing with a rather harsh time and had been wishing for a friend to be with. And during the night, as he slept, he had somehow used magic to partly teleported himself to my home on the light side of the moon. When I say partly I mean he looked rather like a ghost, yet I could touch him and he me. It was rather interesting to say the least, our first meeting, as neither one of us was very sure the other was truly real. But we took comfort in each other and, surprisingly, Night stopped her attack that day," Luna said, a smile showing on her face.

"Wait, you said your side of the moon, are you saying Nightmare did not stay near or with you?" Twilight asked.

"No, she never did, nor did she really want to. When we split it caused us to represent the two sides of the moon. I took the light side, Night on the other hand took the dark side. And before you ask, it was because of her mental link with me, by being born from my magic, that she could talk with me whenever she wanted, even if she was on the other side of the moon," Luna explained.

Twilight nodded, gaining a thoughtful look, "It makes sense as all magic has an opposite. Creation magic and destruction magic are the best known examples of this fact."

"Indeed. Anyway, though he was quite the shy little boy no thanks to his relatives he soon was cuddled into my side and we talked and got to know each other better. That was quite fortunate, because when he awoke in his own world he took me with him. The next night, we didn't touch; that was a long day for us both. After that we made sure to touch when he began to feel his body awaken." Luna said a small smile forming on her face.

"But that first day, I escaped from the moon for the first time in nearly a thousand years, though as little more than a ghost, like he was on the moon. Fortunately, because otherwise I would probably have crushed him in his "bedroom"," Luna said, first smiling then looking a little angry.

"Anyway, as time went on, our friendship grew. Soon though, Night made her move. She had seen through our bond how the boy was being mistreated, as well as his magical potential," Luna said, when Twilight interrupted.

"But didn't you say she could only talk to you through your bond?"

"I, or we, have always used some mental arts, like appearing in dreams, but while I was quite apathetic after our banishment, she busied herself with exploring our link. Though I was not aware of it then, by that time she could easily see through my eyes." Luna answered.

"And though she held no love for him at the time, she did see an opportunity to use him. She created powerful nightmares for those that hurt him, to improve his life to win him over to her side. It worked partly as he did start liking her."

"Wait, did he not realize how dangerous she was?" Applejack asked confused.

"I think he did, but the idea of another friend was too much for him to willingly turn down. But it certainly made Night quite confident that, if it ever came to a choice between me or her, he'd choose her, because she had helped him more directly. And she surely took every opportunity to point that out to me," Luna said, sighing and shaking her head.

"That doesn't really sound like somepony we should save," Rainbow Dash huffed.

"That was then, almost six years ago. A lot can happen in six years, dear, and a lot did. We found out many things about this world, from the magical side of it hiding from the non-magical side, to the lack of true harmony in this world. As it was, during the two years before school he worked his way into Night's heart and started helping her with something even I had never realized before," Luna said.

"And what was that?" Rainbow asked.

"Growing up. You see, by all rights, Night was born the same day we were sealed in the moon. As such, she had never known love, kindness, or friendship. She had my old memories, yes, but it was like looking at someone else's photo books. They just didn't hold the same meaning to her that they did to me. This boy provided those emotions and slowly her heart was changed." Luna said, smiling fondly at some of these memories.

"So she became good then?" Twilight asked.

"In a manner of speaking, yes she did. Yet while she became good, it was only towards people we cared about and became friends with. To all others she was either indifferent or even hostile, depending on what you did around her. Then, about a year before it was time for our return to the world of ponies, our young friend, Harry, got enrolled into a school for magical users. It is called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and happens to be the place we are nearby currently," Luna said, pointing her front left hoof off through the forest in the direction of Hogwarts.

"I guess you taught him a lot during that year," Twilight said.

"Yes, it was for many reasons the happiest time of my life during my time being sealed, Night's as well. But then came the time for us to return," Luna said with a heavy sigh, before continuing, "Young Harry was distraught to hear that I would likely be unable to return, perhaps not or even have a way to communicate with him once I had left if the bond with Night would break. But even more so when he learned the same would be true for Night, if the plan Night and I had come up with failed."

"He begged me not to go through with the plan, but sadly there was no other option. The magic Celestia had woven the day she banished me would pull me back to her world, whether I wanted to go or not, and Night with me. But let me explain the plan in some more detail. When we returned Night would play up her part as the evil villain and as such would make all the ponies work to stop her. Then when they came with the Elements of Harmony we would use the magical output from them to form a portal to this world. We did not need a rune to set up this portal as the magic that would be used would be more than enough to make up for the lack of a rune to direct it fully. Then when Night returned she would keep Harry safe and happy till I hopefully could return and bring them both home to Equestria," Luna explained.

"And thus you tested us to see if we could use the elements to, help you," Applejack said, remembering that from before.

"Yes, and as you can tell, it worked. Nightmare was returned to this world and I stayed in Equestria. Celestia never suspected a thing, till recently when I started researching space and time magic. It was not until I started looking through spells that used chaos magic to summon creatures from other worlds, that she realized I had been hiding something rather big from her. But, by then it was too late for her to stop me as I had found and designed the spell and rune you saw, to let me travel worlds," Luna said, sighing.

"Let me guess, she said she needed to talk with you soon and you freaked out?" Twilight said rather logically.

"Well… yes. By this point It had been almost half a year since I had noticed the bond between me and Night had been severed by something. And after that long, I was not about to let anything stop me. So stealing the Elements of Harmony seemed a rather small thing if it let me do what I needed," Luna said as Twilight finally noticed for the first time that Luna was looking rather worn down, with bags under her eyes.

"And when you say almost anything, what do you mean?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I will leave that unanswered," Luna said, not wanting to admit just how far she would have gone.

"I see," Applejack said, sharing a slightly worried look with her two friends.

"I would not have actually harmed anyone if that is what you are thinking," Luna said semiannoyed.

"We never said anything about harming anyone," Applejack said quickly.

"Yes, but you were thinking it," Luna said glaring, "Anyway, that leaves us where we are now."

"So it does. So what are your plans now and how can we help you?" Twilight asked.

"Twilight, you cannot be serious! She stole the Elements of Harmony, basically kidnapped us, and you're asking how we can help her?" Rainbow yelled out, taking to the air in her shock and amazement.

"Not to be mean, sugar cube, but I have to agree with Rainbow here. Why should we help her?" Applejack asked confused.

"Because you two are forgetting some rather important points that matter a lot if we wish to leave sooner rather than later. One, Luna is the only one that knows the spell and rune to get us back to our own world. Two, she is also the only one that currently knows the locations of the Elements of Harmony. And lastly, and most importantly, she did this all for two friends she loves greatly. Don't tell that if I was in this same situation you would not do the same thing to help me," Twilight said, glaring at her two friends.

"Well… I well…" Rainbow Dash fell silent as she realized this was all true.

Sinking to the ground, she walked over and looked Luna in the eye, before sighing and looking down at the ground. Applejack came over and nuzzled her head against Rainbow Dash's neck and smiled at her multicolored friend. Rainbow Dash looked at her before looking at Luna again and sighed again, looking slightly embarrassed and annoyed.

"I will help as well. And, well, I'm sorry for being mean," Rainbow said.

"Agreed, on both accounts," Applejack said.

Luna looked happy and rather relieved that she would not have to deal with fighting them and saving her friends at the same time. She smiled as they gave her a group hug. Then, as they took their spots again, Luna said they would first be getting some real rest. It was still rather late at night, and while Luna was used to staying up all night, she had been up for almost two days straight without rest after Nightmare Night, preparing for this spell.

After Twilight and Luna replaced the protection barrier, and a warning from Luna to not explore the forest without her, the group was once again off to sleep, curled up close together to ward off the cold autumn night. Luna was asleep right away and the others followed soon after, even though they had already slept a few hours.

The next day, Luna was woken by Rainbow who looked rather perky and happy considering what had happened last night. When everyone was awake, Luna led them to a few berry bushes and mushrooms she had noticed last night while returning to the clearing. After a short breakfast, Luna got them together so they could head out.

"Okay. Follow me, and don't stray too far from the group. This forest is in many ways worse than the Everfree Forest," Luna said as they wove their way through the woods.

"How can there be something worse than the Everfree Forest?" Rainbow asked.

"I am sure you have all seen Timberwolves before?" Luna asked, answering the question with one of her own.

"I have," Rainbow said, nodding as she took to the air to fly along just above the group.

"Yup," Applejack said.

"Read about them and seen pictures," Twilight said.

"There are creatures in this forest that are just as bad to face if not worse, and in greater numbers. To be honest, the Everfree Forest is not really dangerous, as there is only the Timberwolves that really pose a danger to most normal ponies," Luna said as they walked, casting her gaze around to see if anything was near them.

"I guess I can agree with that," Twilight said, thinking about it.

"But everything takes care of itself there! Plants, animals, monsters, they all can handle themselves without pony help. That isn't normal!" Applejack said.

To her surprise Luna laughed slightly at this before she spoke again, "You have grown up in truly peaceful times. If you actually look back far enough in history, you will notice that at one time no one took care of anything other than the plants we ate to live. It was only within the last five hundred years or so that we got to the point of controlling nearly every aspect of the year."

"You mean the seasons, weather, animals and plants all used to do their own thing?" Rainbow asked surprised.

"Yes, though we started working on controlling the weather and seasons even farther back," Luna said, remembering those days when it would snow or rain without reason.

"That must have been a rather crazy world," Applejack said, thinking over what it would be like to grow food in a world where the weather could not be predicted down to the minute.

"No. It had its own balance and harmony, much like this world," Luna said with a small smile.

"So where are we going?" Rainbow asked, noticing the trees were thinning out, allowing them to move in a straighter line.

"We are headed up to that castle, my friends," Luna said as they rounded a rather large tree.

In front, running for hundreds of feet, were flat grasslands with a huge lake by a large hill. But then they saw what was built on the hill; their mouths fell open in surprise. It was a castle, but it was well beyond anything they had ever seen. It outsized the royal castle in Canterlot easily, as the main hall could probably house the whole royal castle, though without its spires. But those were easily dwarfed by this castle's towers, which even without the hill seemed to rise hundreds of feet into the air. It also had an air of mystery hanging about it that made it look even more impressive.

"My friends, welcome to Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," Luna said.

Looking up at the castle towers, knowing inside one of them were two of her closest friends, she quietly said to herself, "Harry, Night, I have finally come to bring you home."


	3. Chapter 3

( A few days later than i had hoped to post this but here you go.

Again i thank my Beta for their hard work. )

* * *

Chapter 3

Twilight yawned as they moved about the castle, without being seen thanks to an invisibility spell that Luna and she both knew. Twilight would have liked to have walked around without it, but Luna pointed out it might be safer with it currently. They had already searched the room where Harry normally slept, but he was not there. This did not surprise Luna a lot as he was an early knew Harry was still around and going to the school, as his things were still in the dorm rooms.

Twilight and the others were a little surprised when Luna proved this by pulling a stuffed animal out of his trunk. It was a perfect replica of Luna, even down to how her mane and tail at times could be seen through. Luna noticed that Night's own stuffed animal body was not in the trunk. She hoped this was a sign that Night was still with Harry, but she feared that wasn't the case.

Luna knew the school could be rather confusing, and that was before even taking into account the shifting passages and staircases. That's why they stayed together to search the , and Luna was the only one that knew for sure what Harry looked like, though they could all easily identify Night if they saw her. As they moved down from the upper halls to the lower floors, Luna was starting to get worried, and confused. Even though there were students about, she had not seen any sign of Harry.

When the time for lunch came, Luna led them down to the Great Hall. The other three ponies could not help but stare as they saw the huge hall from the inside for the first time. It seemed to be smaller than the outside suggested, confusing Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash slightly as this room should be bigger than the castle in Canterlot, yet it was almost smaller than the main hall right now.

"This room seems a lot smaller than it should be," Twilight commented.

Luna nodded, "Yes, the room seems to shift size, but that is for another time. I am going up to the rafters to check for Harry."

Luna flew up to the rafters to have a better overview over the kids as they came in to eat. Rainbow Dash took off after her, while Twilight teleported, taking Applejack with her. But Harry did not show up for lunch at all, nor was there any sign of Night. Soon after lunch they went back down to begin their search of the school again.

"Why is he not here?" Luna asked later near day's end, looking rather down.

They hadn't found Harry anywhere within the school. Luna had seen some of Harry's friends moving about the school at times, but Harry was never with them. For that matter, whenever the ponies passed within hearing distance of them there was no mention of Harry or Night. And Luna was quite sure she should have at least been able to feel Night's mental presence by now, being in the same world as her again, but she was still hidden to Luna's mind.

"I am not sure," Twilight said, moving over to Luna.

They were outside, in one of the few different courtyards the school had. This one was rather out of the way, which would serve to hide them for a while. It had been a lucky discovery of Harry's back when he would explore the school with Luna and Night. They had shown it to others, and anyone from Harry's group would use it if they wanted some alone time. Luna felt safe enough there to release the invisibility spell, to Twilight's relief. The courtyard wasn't very big, but it had a few benches, one of which Luna was currently lying on. The use of magic hadn't tired her or Twilight, but she was annoyed and tired of not finding any clue as to where Harry or Night were.

"It does not make sense! His stuff is here, yet he is not here. Nor is there any sign of Night at all," Luna said sighing.

"That is because Harry does not go to classes anymore," A voice said, causing the four ponies to jump.

Luna spun around and blinked in surprise. It was one of Harry's closest friends, Hermione Granger, a witch of great skill and knowledge, but born to non-magical parents. Luna was sure that when Hermione grew up she would be someone who could easily rival Twilight.

"What do you mean by that; his stuff is still in his dorm room," Luna said, getting up and trotting over to Hermione quickly.

"Well, first I want to ask something of you," Hermione said, looking around at the four ponies.

"Sure, as long as you tell me where Harry and Night are," Luna said.

"Are you really Luna, you know, the spirit that inhabited this stuffed animal two years back?" Hermione asked, catching Luna slightly by surprise as she held up the stuffed object in question.

"Yes that is me, but why do you have that?" Luna asked, looking at Hermione closely.

"Okay. Well I had read an easy spell to summon ghosts, and I needed something you held dear. I am not sure if this doll would have worked for that, but I figured it would be worth a shot to try the spell. Also, might I ask if these are some of your new friends?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, though they came with me by accident," Luna said before pointing to them as she named them off, "That is Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Twilight Sparkle."

"It is a pleasure to meet friends of Luna's," Applejack said smiling.

"Agreed," Rainbow said smiling.

"It is my pleasure to meet you," Twilight said.

"It is nice to meet all of you as well, and I am glad you're back, Luna," Hermione said, before dropping her large bag full of books and giving Luna a hug, "We really need your help!"

Luna blinked in surprise as she was hugged. Normally, when she used to be here, Harry would carry her around in his arms, while Night either opted to ride on his shoulder, or walked about. Now, being her normal size, she stood easily the same height as Hermione if not a little taller.

"While I was hoping nothing would be wrong, I knew that was very unlikely. What happened while I was gone, and what do you need my help with?" Luna asked, as Hermione let her go.

"Well, it would be best if I started with last year when we, or more correctly I, first noticed the changes starting," Hermione said, sitting down on one of the benches.

Luna nodded, lying down again as the other three ponies each picked a spot to sit down, as Hermione spoke again, "It first became noticeable about six months ago. Night, who was still walking besides Harry at the time when I first noticed, would start slowing down or acting sleepy. It was as if all the energy suddenly left her. Harry at first would help her happily. But as time went on he seemed to forget about her. First it was a few seconds before he would notice she was not keeping up with us, but then it became longer, which was weird since, well…"

"Well what?" Luna asked.

"Well, I learned that when you were still with us, that you were not some magical puppet made by Harry's magic, but were actually the spirit of a real pony that had become friends with Harry a while back. Harry told me during second year not long after you had left, since I noticed he missed you more than any kid would miss their toy," Hermione said explaining.

"That is rather surprising," Luna said, "Why would he tell you that?"

"Because I was getting rather nosey, he had to tell me a little of where you and Night came from or I might have told a teacher, since I had figured out you were a spirit after realizing that it was not some spell that was keeping Night alive," Hermione said, looking slightly saddened.

"It is okay. Nothing happened from it and it helps us now. Continue, please," Luna asked.

"Yes, of course. Anyway, because of that, I knew Harry wouldn't forget about her like that. Once, when it got that bad that Night fell down and Harry just walked on, I went back to pick her up. When I handed her to Harry, I noticed something that worried me even more. He did not recognize her at all, for that matter, when he looked at me it seemed he was confused as to who I was," Hermione said, a look of hurt crossing her face.

"But it passed after a few moments and at the time I put it all down to him being stressed and distracted by the Dementors and Sirius Black. It was not until Harry came back this year that I fully saw what had happened. He came back, not seeming to know anyone of his old friends, including me, and was unwilling to make any new friends. He started to withdraw even more after a few weeks of school, focusing on his studies even more than usual," Hermione said sighing.

"Sounds like me before I made friends," Twilight said.

"Yes, every one of his friends, including myself, thought this was weird. We thought someone was messing with his mind, but the teachers brushed us off and we couldn't find anything ourselves that helped. And after a few weeks it even looked like Harry had lost most of his magical ability, but we couldn't get close enough to him anymore to even try to help, while the teachers simply thought he was finally hitting some roadblocks with some of the harder spells. While that was bad enough, it only got worse as the event of the year was announced to the school," Hermione said.

"There can be worse?" Applejack said confused.

"Yes. Harry is in a life threatening Tournament this year. Somehow, someone has gotten him into it, and without a way out and with his inability to use magic anymore… well… he will die," Hermione said sighing.

"I… I see," Luna said, a look of worry on her face.

"So let me see if I got this correct. Harry has lost all his memories, is barely able to use magic, and is stuck in a tournament that is threatening to his very life. And of Night there is no sign at all," Rainbow said.

"Yeah, that's about the sum of it. Though now that I think about it, I did see Night once this year, when Harry got on the train. He dropped his trunk on the platform and it opened, and I saw both of your stuffed animal forms in it," Hermione said nodding but then smiled, "And now that you are here we might be able to turn this around."

"How do you plan on doing that?" Twilight asked.

"Recently I learned a spell that lets me summon objects with magic, and the harder I concentrate and the more magic I use in my spell, the easier it should be to pull said object to me. If Night's plushy body is at Hogwarts, I should be able to summon her," Hermione said.

"Then cast it! What are you waiting for?!" Rainbow Dash nearly yelled.

"Well, I went out here so I could try some spells without anyone bugging me or seeing me casting them, but, well, we met up and I could not try out anything yet," Hermione said, pulling out her wand.

Luna nodded, stepping back, as did the others, as Hermione drew upon her magic and cast the spell. Hermione kept focusing as the four watched on, hoping this would work. A purple glow came from Hermione as she focused drawing upon her magic more and more. But she soon had to stop as she realized it was not working.

"Night's body is here, I think, but bound by magical means of some kind. I don't have enough magic to break the bond currently," Hermione said.

"Could we pool all our magic in you to increase the power of the spell?" Twilight asked.

"It would not work; our magic is too different from hers to try that safely. Maybe if we had a year to work on it," Luna said before turning to Hermione, "But I have a different idea that might work to help you gain magical power for a short while."

Luna smiled as her horn glowed, channeling her own magic. With a small flash of light a gem-encrusted case appeared. Twilight at once recognized it as the case that held the Elements of Harmony. Luna opened it and brought out a crown with a star on top of it and placed it on Hermione's head. Hermione blinked, looking at Luna slightly confused, while the other ponies looked rather shocked.

"Why are you letting her wear the Element of Magic?" Twilight asked confused.

"Because it is one of the few items that I know of that will be able to boast her magic safely," Luna said, gesturing for Hermione to try again.

"But you said our magic would not help her own," Twilight said confused.

"Yes, because our magic holds within itself pieces of who and what we are. If you and I were to share magic without being used to it, we would be able to tell it was not our own magic at once, and possibly feel a little pain using it. But if we did it with Hermione we would risk actually hurting her. But this item produces magic in its purest form, letting it flow into anyone and help them. It is why the Elements of Harmony can be worn by anyone who shares a link with what they represent, which is why I can still use them," Luna said.

Twilight nodded. Suddenly, a loud bang came from within the castle. Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash all jumped in surprise, as none of them had noticed Hermione had already started her second try while they were talking. They were wondering why Hermione held out her hand, until a stuffed animal flew into it. Hermione was slightly surprised how easy it was to draw power from the Element and push it into the spell to bring Night to her.

Luna smiled, it was the stuffed animal that had housed Night's soul alright, she could feel her sister's magic that had once filled it. What the others noticed, were the details and how much it looked like Nightmare Moon. Hermione smiled and set the stuffed animal down on one of the benches before looking at Luna. Hermione then took off the Element of Harmony and handed it back to her.

"Well done Hermione," Luna said, placing the Element back in the case before asking, "What next?"

"This was as far as I had planned to go for now, you see, I was not sure what they did to Night and without that information I could not go any farther till I got a chance to examine her body. If she isn't in her body, or if I she's otherwise unresponsive and beyond my magical ability, I wouldn't have been able to do anything other than trying to keep her safe and further researching," Hermione said with a sigh.

"And what makes you think Night won't be reverse summoned?" Rainbow asked.

"Well, the spell that bound her should have stopped my own summon. It is a rather easy spell to learn, but with this "Element of Magic" I seem to have overpowered it. If I had succeeded in summoning Night, I would have used that, and hoped they wouldn't be able to overpower my spell if they tried," Hermione said.

"Not the best planning, I might say, Hermione," Luna pointed out.

"Well, without you nothing would have happened anyway, and as I said before when I held up your doll, my next spell to try would have been summoning your ghost. I don't know if that would have worked any better, but if what Harry said about your skills in magic was true, we now should be able to free her before anyone realizes what has happened, I hope," Hermione said, looking at Luna first annoyed then hopeful.

Luna nodded, "I get your point."

"Good," Hermione said a little heatedly, "So can you help me?"

Luna sighed and walked to the stuffed animal nodding, realizing Hermione rash behavior was much like her own. She touched her horn to Night's stuffed animal body and pushed magic into it. She smiled, she could feel Night's soul hidden, and sealed within it.

"She is sealed within the stuffed animal's body. I have the skills needed to break the seal, but I will need some help with providing the power to break it. Twilight, I need you to pool your magic into Night's body while I work," Luna said, looking over at Twilight.

"Wouldn't that risk hurting her?" Twilight asked, remembering what Luna had said about magical types.

"Her magic basically is my own magic's twin, and just like mine ages old and very potent, so she should be able to deal with your magic without much risk of pain, even before she is back to full power. While you do this I will use my magic and your own in the doll to try and break the seal," Luna said.

"Got it," Twilight said, as she started to pool her magic around her horn.

Hermione stepped back a few feet, as did the other two ponies. Luna leaned down letting her horn touch the face of Night, while Twilight channeled her magic in through Night's own horn. The three watched on as the glow from Luna's horn grew slowly brighter and brighter as she worked. As the minute mark passed, they were forced to turn away, as the light was too blinding to stare at any longer.

But still Luna and Twilight worked on, not stopping their work as the light became intense enough to bother them as well. Then, without warning, even to Luna or Twilight, there was a pulse of magic from the stuffed animal. Both Twilight and Luna were thrown back by the force of the magical pulse, and the animal began to glow.

Twilight and Luna tried to watch to see what was going to happen, but the glow became too bright once again, and they were forced to look away. There was another magical pulse, knocking everyone down and causing some of the stones around the courtyard to break, before the light vanished completely. Twilight was the first to fully recover her sight and she looked to where the stuffed animal's body had been sitting. In its place was a pony she would never forget. Nightmare Moon was back, and when she opened her eyes for the first time, Twilight could tell she was also very, very mad.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Luna moved over quickly and wrapped Nightmare Moon in a hug, "Night, I missed you so much, and I am so sorry I did not come sooner to help!"

Night blinked and looked around, anger rapidly fading from her face replaced with confusion as Luna took a few steps back. She recognized the three young ponies that had helped her return to this world and Luna was easy enough to recognize, even if she had grown a little bit since they had last seen each other. Night then looked at the human and blinked in surprise. It was Hermione, but she looked a good deal older than when she had last seen her.

Taking a few steps, Night shook her head now more than slightly confused. The last thing she remembered was someone that she could barely make out, attacking Harry. When she had made a move to help Harry, her anger spiking high, she had been blasted by a spell causing her world to go dark not long afterwards. Looking at Hermione, Night guessed that had to have been close to a year ago, which meant she had been out for a lot longer than she had thought when coming to. But that still left one question: Where was Harry Potter?

She was taken out of these thoughts as Hermione spoke, "Night… are you okay?"

Night blinked and looked at Hermione before nodding. "Yes, I think I am. How much time has passed since you last saw me, Hermione?"

"Close to five months at best," Hermione said.

"Really? That cannot be right! What is the date?" Night asked.

"It is November the third," Hermione said.

"But, I have been out of it for six months at least," Night said to herself.

"That is right, it was nearly six months ago that I lost contact with you," Luna said.

"If you were knocked out six months ago, it would explain why you started acting strangely," Hermione pointed out.

"Yes, if it was Harry's magic, trying to make another companion to replace Night, by animating the stuffed animal you had possessed or something similar, it would explain why Hermione would have seen you moving after that attack. And if Harry had been slowly losing his memory it would also explain the… lack of energy at times." Luna pointed out.

Hermione nodded, before looking about, remembering that this was only the place for the summoning; they needed to be away before someone came looking to see what happened. As such Hermione spoke next, "Okay, but we should be off. I'm not sure how much longer we have until someone comes looking around here, though they might check to see what that loud banging sound was in the school first."

"Good point. Night, carry Hermione, Twilight, I will carry you. Rainbow, can you carry Applejack, so we can move to a safer location to talk and plan," Luna said, spreading her wings.

Everyone nodded as they got ready. A few moments later they took off. Hermione and Night led the way, flying over the castle grounds and the Forbidden Forest, before they finally made their way up into the was able to pick out a good location on the side of one of the mountains, even in the fading light, and landed in a small outcrop of rocks that would keep them hidden from others. It also had a small cave at the back, which was even better. Hermione at once set about lighting a magical fire to keep them warm, while Night and Luna set up a barrier to keep them safe while they talked.

Once everything was done, they all took a place to lie down around the fire, or in Hermione's case sit down. Once they were all settled Night spoke up, "So, Hermione, Luna, could you please explain to me what in the name of Equestria has been going on?!"

Hermione nodded and explained what had happened since the start of May last year, when Night was attacked. Now that they had time, it took about thirty minutes to explain everything, instead of the minute that was needed before. Harry losing his friends, how his grades dropped, his seeming loss of memory, everything she could think of. Once Hermione was done, Luna explained what had happened in Equestria at the time. This took a great deal more time, thanks to Luna's royal life and having to deal with a great many other details that seemed to keep coming, as Night wanted to know all the details, it would help with any plans they would come up with or make later on.

Night listened quietly. Her mane, which normally floated around, just lay nearly motionless across her back. It was a whole different pony than the Nightmare Moon Twilight and the others had met that fateful night two years ago. It finally hit home to Twilight and Applejack how much Night had changed since then. Rainbow though did not notice this, as while the barrier was up and keeping them safe, she was keeping an eye out for anyone, just in case. They were dealing with someone who had gotten the better of THE Nightmare Moon!

When Luna finished speaking, silence fell over the group, as Night thought about what had happened. The sun had set by now. Night got up and walked to the edge of the outcrop to look out towards Hogwarts and sighed, "Life has really taken a turn for the worse."

"Yes, but now maybe we can turn it around," Luna said, watching her twin.

"Maybe, if we are lucky. But there is still one problem, we have no clue who attacked me," Night pointed out.

"And we don't know where Harry is," Luna said.

"He will be easy to find and release. You really have not thought to try and find him with your mental powers?" Night said, looking back at her twin.

Luna blinked for a few seconds before looking away sheepishly saying, "Well. I guess I overlooked that detail. I could not find you mentally, so I did not think to look for Harry that way."

"It is okay, worrying can make anypony, or person, overlook even the simplest details at times," Night said, though she was now smiling.

"Okay, so you have a plan then?" Rainbow asked.

"In a manner of speaking. The first thing we need to do is locate Harry and return his memories, which is the easy part. Secondly, we need to figure out who attacked Harry and me, after which we remove them from the picture. That will be the hard part," Night said, looking up towards the stars.

"But wait, you saw them fighting Harry, didn't you recognize them, or for that matter, wouldn't you be able to point them out now?" Twilight asked.

"I had never seen them before. Moreover, their form was distorted, like a ghost in a fog bank," Night replied, "As such I could not get a good look at them."

"So we are dealing with an unknown attacker," Hermione said, looking thoughtful.

"Yep, but not the best I am pretty sure," Night said smiling.

"Why is that?" Rainbow asked.

"Harry seemed to be on the same level with them in magical dueling skills," Night said, looking rather happy.

"As comforting as that is, we should work on finding Harry," Hermione said, drawing them back to their main objective.

"True, but first we need to get some rest, it is late and I doubt it would be good if you went missing," Night said.

"Or we could keep working and find Harry tonight, and bring him back to his normal self," Hermione countered.

"Yes we could do that, but please realize one thing: If we start doing things like you and Luna did without thinking, we could be found out too quickly and all our work would be for nothing. I doubt the one who did this won't be on the lookout for anything different in Harry's behavior or that of his friends. And after that sound you said was caused by breaking me free, I have no doubt they will be doubly watchful," Night explained.

"So in short, we cannot risk anyone acting differently just yet then," Luna said, realizing what her sister was getting at.

"Yep, so Hermione, I will give you a ride back to your room, then you can meet up with us tomorrow after dinner. At which time Luna and I will have hopefully already located and helped Harry regain himself, and you can have your friend back again," Night said, getting up and walking over to Hermione.

Hermione nodded, "Okay. I guess I will go back. But please find him by tomorrow night."

"We shall do our best, you have my word on that," Luna said.

Hermione nodded and got up onto Night's back and soon they were off back towards the school. Night moved quickly to one of the many different towers the school had and dropped Hermione off. Night turned to leave but Hermione spoke again, stopping her.

"Night, I need to ask you something," Hermione said, moving around to look Night in the eye.

"What might that be?" Night asked, not sure if she should be surprised by how Hermione was acting.

"When you return to your homeland of Equestria, I would love it if you took me with you," Hermione said.

"We can, but why would you want to go? Your family is here in this world, in my own world you would have almost no one to lean on or even help you besides Harry, Luna, and myself," Night said, looking at Hermione closely.

"Yes I know, but well…" Hermione started speaking but stopped, a look of pain crossing her features.

"What happened?" Night asked, noticing the pained expression.

"I will explain, sometime," Hermione said, turning away from her friend.

"As you wish," Night said, before nuzzling Hermione's cheek.

"Thanks," Hermione said, giving her friend a quick hug before speeding off down the tower stairs.

Night waited for a few moments before taking flight again. She had a bad feeling that things were worse than just what had happened with Harry, if Hermione's own actions just now were anything to go by. Night knew she could view Hermione's mind if she really wanted to find out just how bad things were. But it would be betraying the trust Hermione had put in Night a long time ago, and that trust was not something Night was going to betray so easily.

As she got back to the others she noticed that Rainbow Dash and Applejack were already asleep. Twilight was nowhere to be seen while Luna was watching the star-filled sky above. Luna looked over at Night when she landed and smiled, before going back to watching the sky. Night smiled to herself and went to lie down, when she noticed Twilight come back from wherever she had been. Twilight smiled at Night before moving about, finding a soft patch of dirt to sleep on. She was soon asleep beside her friends and Night followed her example.

The next morning Night was woken by Applejack, whose habit of waking with the sunrise had woken her up. Night gave her a light glare, causing the orange colored mare to back up a little, a flash of fear appeared in her eyes for a moment before vanishing and Applejack looked slightly abashed. Night rolled her eyes and got up, shaking and stretching herself, waking up more as she did so. Smiling at Applejack, she looked about and noticed she was the last to get up; everyone else was already eating. Night walked over and sat down by her sister and started eating the food they had collected.

After finishing their breakfast, Night looked out over the land towards the school, before turning back to the others, "I will find Harry. I want you to set up an area that will keep us safe for a few days."

With that, Night flew off into the morning. As she flew on she carefully spread out her mental awareness, searching for Harry. She had to be careful, because normally she did this while standing still or lying down so she could put all her concentration into it. If she did that now, she could possibly stop flying and fall to her death. She normally would not do this, but she wanted to be mobile with her search, in case Harry was on the move as well.

But as she moved over the school, she found, like Luna and the others the day before, that he was nowhere to be found in the school. She was slightly confused at this, but decided, since her search was not working while moving, she would have to land and search the entire school at once.

Settling down she started searching the school, but as her focus grew, she soon realized something: Harry was not actually in the school. He was some thousand or so feet above it. Slowly she got back up as she stopped her mental search and looked up towards the sky, before shaking her head smiling, "So that is where you are hiding. Up resting on the clouds again."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Harry's day was as boring as normal. He was skipping class, thinking about his life, something he didn't do too often as his life was rather simple. Yet each time he thought about his life, he felt that something or someone was missing. But no matter how much he thought about it, he could not bring what was missing into focus in his mind. And if he focused too much on trying to bring it to the front of his mind he would end up with major headaches. But this could just mean he was trying to think up something that was not there.

Sighing Harry continued to stare up into the sky as a cloud passed high over him, while laying on his own cloud. He was not sure why this piece of magic seemed to work for him, while all his other spells did not. But he was glad it did. It allowed him to escape the annoying people at school, mostly Draco Malfoy and Ron Weasley. Both of them seemed to think that since he got rid of his old friends they would end up being better friends.

Harry did not even bother with either of them and kept on walking. Even when they became persistent, Harry would not even try and listen to them, sliding around them and continuing on his way. Draco had been the one who did more than try and stop Harry to just talk: he had thrown a spell at Harry. Harry had struck back and somehow cast a spell without a wand in his hand, and had sent Draco flying into a wall. Harry at this time started feeling that something was off, and as such he had started his hours on end of thinking in the clouds.

As he lay in the cloud, feeling the cloud starting to disappear under him as the sun hit it, he heard something flying nearby. This was a little abnormal, as he was up where only large birds could normally reach. Yet the wing beats he heard as they got closer sounded like they belonged to something rather small. This only could mean one of two things, either he was hearing things, or something was coming for him that could use magic to fly.

Harry opened his eyes and took off on his broom, as this might not end too well if he had to fight while still lying around on the cloud. To his surprise, a moment later a strange Pegasus–Unicorn hybrid appeared before him. Something about it seemed very familiar but he could not place it.

"So this is where you have been hiding," the strange horse said, its voice female.

"Yes. This is where I have been," Harry answered, before he asked, "Who are you?"

A look of hurt passed through the horse's eyes before it spoke again, "An old friend of yours. Most know me as Nightmare Moon, but I go by the name Night now."

"Friend," Harry said, the word almost sounding foreign to his ear.

"Yes, friend," Night said.

"So… why are you looking for me?" Harry asked.

"Well, I want to help you regain those memories and skills you have lost over the summer," Night said.

"Lost," Harry said, slightly confused.

"Can you honestly tell me you have never seen me before?" Night said.

Harry sighed, the wind moving about his broom a little bit. She seemed familiar, yet Harry could not find her anywhere in his memories, and he was sure he would have remembered her. After all, she was a talking, winged Unicorn with a translucent starry mane and tail.

"I feel like I should, yet I cannot remember ever having seen you before," Harry said, as he moved his broom and landed on the cloud again.

"Try hard, I know it is in there, though, I will warn you this may not work," Night said.

"I will try, but I'm sure I won't be able to recall anything," Harry said.

"Why is that?" Night asked.

"Every time I have tried to focus on remembering something about my old friends, I get a headache so bad and painful I am forced to stop. Sometimes it makes me think that when I am trying to remember, I'm trying to force a memory into being that does not actually exist," Harry said, looking down at the cloud.

"You cannot remember," Night stated, more than asked. She now knew his memory had been actually blocked.

"Yes, and I know I had friends before now. Like Hermione, because Ron and Draco keep on saying good job on leaving her and that they would be better friends than she was. Yet, I cannot remember ever being her friend; it is so confusing," Harry said, before sighing rather heavily.

Night nodded before landing on the cloud, much to Harry's surprise, "I can kind of understand what it would be like to go through that."

Her ability to walk on clouds distracted Harry, making him ask, "How… how are you walking on the cloud? I thought I was the only one able to do that!"

"It is something my sister, Luna, and I taught you back in your first year," Night said, smiling.

"First year…" Harry said thoughtfully.

Yes, it had been his first year at Hogwarts, when Harry had learned this skill of walking and lying on clouds, but as he focused on who had taught him, a headache hit him hard. Harry fought back the pain this time, trying to remember those times, but the headache suddenly got worse. And with a loud yell of pain he lost consciousness. This in itself was not bad, till he slipped through the cloud and started falling.

Though Night was rather surprised by the sudden lack of consciousness, she took off immediately and dove through the cloud, causing the cloud to break apart. She quickly spotted Harry's falling form, and using her magic caught him, together with his broom. Smiling, she decided this might not have been the best place for him to work on remembering and flew back towards the others so they could work on his memories and remove the blocks he very clearly had.

As Night landed, Luna ran up, looking relieved at first at seeing Harry, then worried at the fact he was being carried by Night's magic, out cold. Rainbow flew in behind Night, having seen her coming back towards the camp, while Twilight and Applejack were quickly there to see what was going on.

"So this is Harry," Twilight stated.

"Yes, this is him," Luna said, before looking at Night and asking, "why is he out cold?"

"Well, when I found him, he was on his broom above a cloud. We started talking, and he landed on it and sat down. But when I landed, he seemed surprised I was able to, until I explained we were the ones who taught him to move about on clouds. He tried to remember, but then he cried in pain and passed out," Night explained.

"Sounds worse than what Discord used against us," Applejack said.

"Many times so," Luna said, before explaining, "While your memories weren't changed, your very personalities were in all aspects changed. On the other hand, Harry's personality is still mostly the same, which means he wants to make the sort of friends he used to have. But each time he tries to make friends, or bring those memories forward so he can make them again, the block hurts him."

"So he starts hurting himself to have what he wants or needs," Twilight said, casting a sad look towards Harry.

"Yes, but unlike the spell that affected you, these are mental blocks, much harder to break," Luna said, gaining a rather annoyed look.

"So how long do you think this might take?" Twilight said, her horn starting to glow as her magic started to probe Harry's mind carefully.

"Not long, Luna and I are masters of the mind arts, and I can tell you're not too bad yourself," Night said, sensing Twilight probe within Harry's mind.

"Celestia had everyone at her school learn them, to show the dangers of them as well as how to reverse them," Twilight explained, stopping the mind probe.

"I can understand that," Luna said thoughtfully.

"In this case though, I think this is well outside my own skills," Twilight said, taking a few steps back.

Luna nodded and began her own mental work into finding the blocks. Night did not join in right away, but rather watched Twilight instead. She could tell that Twilight had the skills to unlock Harry's mind; the block was not solid enough to hold against one of her skill and magical power.

"Twilight, might I ask why you stepped down? I can tell you are more than skilled enough to deal with these blocks," Night asked.

"It is not my place to work within his mind. He is not my friend, he is yours. As it was, it was a little rude of me to poke into his mind without asking first," Twilight said, looking a little embarrassed.

"I understand," Night said, before going to help her sister.

Night had been slightly correct when saying Twilight could have dealt with the first block, even the second one. But as they worked their way through the fourth then fifth layer, Night knew that Twilight would have had to have given up on getting through them. The others watched on as they worked their way through the blocks. It was almost an hour later when the magical glow left their horns.

Twilight at once came over and asked. "Is it over?"

"No, there is still one block left. We are taking a small break before we finish up," Night said.

"But why stop now?" Applejack asked.

"We have been focusing non-stop for over an hour, and have used a lot of magical power to break those seals on Harry's magic. Someone put a lot effort into those seals. Though whether it was after the attack or during the summer we cannot tell," Luna said sighing.

"Are you saying you're running out of magic?" Applejack asked in surprise.

"No, we still have plenty of magic. We merely want to take a break before continuing," Night said.

"Okay," Applejack said, bringing over some food.

"By the way, where is Rainbow Dash?" Night asked, noticing that Rainbow Dash was not around.

"Rainbow went for a flight. She has never been one to lie around too long, and this world offers a lot of places she can explore," Applejack said.

"And new dangers," Night said.

Applejack nodded, saying, "Yes that's true. When I went camping with Rainbow before, we never had to worry about protection like we have here."

"Yes, and while there is nothing really dangerous that would be flying, one can never be too sure," Night said.

"I will remember to tell Rainbow that," Applejack said.

"So is Rainbow always like that, running off when things get boring?" Night asked.

"Oh, she's always happy to help, especially if it's action-related! But at times like this, when there's nothing she can really do, she gets bored easily. She rather takes a nap then, or plays around. She's always been a spirited filly," Applejack said.

"I know people like that, though not many in the magical world," Night said thoughtfully.

"I am not surprised," Applejack said smiling, "There are ponies like that everywhere."

The small talk continued till Luna called Night back over so they could continue and finish what they had started. Much to their surprise, Harry had not awoken yet, but that might have been a combination of the blocks being removed and his own fainting earlier. They soon started working on removing the final and most difficult block. As they broke it, Harry let out a loud yell as he suddenly came to.

Night threw up a shield as Harry rolled away firing a spell off towards them. He was clearly rather confused about what was going on. Her shield shook from the first two blasts before she strengthened it to the point it could take the assault. But another spell did not come as Harry started to realize he wasn't being attacked and was among friends. Confusion filled his eyes as he looked around.

"What's going on, where am I? What happened to that person who attacked me?" Harry asked, getting off the ground and dusting himself off.

"Well, this is going to take some explaining," Luna said, before she and Night rushed over and pulled him in a group hug, nearly crushing him as they did so.

It took a good while to explain to Harry what had happened since he had been attacked. He could not quite believe it was already fourth year. Or for that matter, that he was in a life or death competition. But Luna explained that the blocks were the reason he did not currently remember anything from after the attack. Or better, their removal: by about noon tomorrow he should be able to remember everything again that had happened up till now.

As Harry sat out by a rock, working on his magical control again, Twilight walked over to Luna, wanting to know a few things. She knew the spells that had been used earlier when Harry had first awoken were human spells. But the feel of the magic as it moved through the air was that of pony magic, not the human magic she had felt when people cast spells in the classes as they passed by. She knew she probably should not dig too deeply, but her need to know was compelling her to ask.

"Luna, could I ask you something?" Twilight asked.

"What might that be?" Luna asked back.

"The magic Harry used earlier felt like pony and not human magic. Is this because of your training?" Twilight asked.

"In the simplest of ways, yes. Human magic, we found, is rather chaotic and hard to control normally, which is why they use a wand to help them cast spells normally. But not knowing this at the time we found Harry could use magic, we worked with Harry and taught him how we Ponies use magic. Which requires a lot of control, and that is why his magic feels like Pony magic," Luna explained, noticing that Night was leaving to pick up Hermione.

"I see. So why does he keep his wand with him then when he is casting spells, as he clearly does not need it?" Twilight asked.

"It is for the act mostly. After all, once they are disarmed, most magic users of this world have no form of combat skills, or way to fight back. We figured if everyone thought the same of Harry, it would be a little surprise if he were still able to use magic, even without a wand," Luna explained.

"I see," Twilight said thoughtfully.

Luna nodded to herself as she watched Harry work hard. For the first time since she had left for Equestria she felt truly happy again. She had been happy of course to see her sister Celestia, and even see her subjects again. But no matter how happy she had become there, it was always a little hollow because two things were missing. But now that she had them back, she was going to make sure she never lost them again. Even if Celestia did not like it, she was not about to give up her two closest friends ever again.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

It had been nearly two weeks since Harry had been released from the magical binds that had been placed on him. Life for him at Hogwarts was already beginning to slowly take a turn for the better again.

Harry's grades, which had suffered a nearly crippling blow, were starting to climb back up, even if rather slowly. It would be likely near the end of the year before they were even close to where they should have been.

More importantly, Harry was meeting up with his friends again. They had been informed by Hermione that their suspicions about Harry's mind being messed with were correct. Though they had to stay under the radar for now, they had already had a few small secret meetings, organized by Hermione.

After finding out Harry was bound magically to compete in the Triwizard Tournament, much to Luna's and Night's great dislike, they had set about finding out as much as they could, and worked on making a new plan to make it through the year, since Luna's old plan to grab and go was now destroyed. As such they came up with a new plan that would cover them till the end of the year, and later lead to everyone's return to Equestria.

The plan itself was simple enough: have Harry slowly return to his old life meeting up with his friends, first in secret then more in the open. If the person who had attacked him was still around and saw this as a problem, they would most likely reveal themselves and try to reapply the magical binds. If this did happen, then Night, Twilight, and Luna who were guarding Harry using invisibility spells could help him fight off the attacker. If they did not make a move, then they could instead keep their main efforts focused on passing the tournament, then getting back home safely.

There were a few small problems with this plan that the other ponies did not like. One of which was Applejack and Rainbow Dash having nothing to do most of the day while the others were away, leaving them bored. And as winter was rapidly showing signs of coming soon, they would be forced to hide somewhere in the school for warmth, which would increase the risk of the group of ponies being found out. Night and Luna knew some places they could stay in the castle, they would just have to find food for them.

The second problem, though this was something they were now working on, was Twilight's skills in combat magic being rather weak at best. Her reasons for this were mostly twofold. One, most ponies did not learn battle magic to begin with, unless they were either expecting an attack, or planning on causing trouble. Or if they were planning on becoming part of the Royal Guard that guarded the Princesses. As Twilight did not fall into any of these groups, her lack of skills in this subject was not really surprising.

Harry thoughts drifted away from this, as he sat down and filled his plate with food. But as he began to eat it, he noticed that Draco Malfoy was making his way over to him again. That meant that Draco's red-headed competitor for Harry's friendship probably wouldn't be long behind. Harry sighed and thought back over his time under the magical binds' influence; this looked like it would be the fifth or sixth time they bugged him, one followed always by the other.

Harry shook his head. His time under the effects of the magical bind had left those days still rather blurred and hard to fully recall. Night reasoned this was because, with the bind on his mind already in place, his mind could not fully form the memories. To be honest, even Night and Luna did not fully understand what was done. At the very least the binds had messed with his memories of his friends, and his own magical skills. But the amount of binds suggested something far worse, though they were still unsure what they all did.

"Well Potter, it seems you're making mistakes again," Draco said, stopping right in front of Harry.

Strangely enough, he noticed Ron sit down further down the table, seemingly without interest in the wondered slightly if Ron had learned his lesson after being blasted last time. Looking at Draco, Harry could only shake his head, asking, "What mistakes are you talking about?"

"You're once again trying to hang out with all that filth," Draco said.

"Filth? The only filth I see is right in front of me," Harry said, looking rather pointedly at Draco.

Draco gained a rather indignant look, his voice rising a little in anger, "I am not filth, I, am a pure-blood wizard, the Elite of the Wizarding World."

"To me your are nothing more than filth, now leave me alone, before I decide to make this a repeat of last time you tried to convince me you were the best friend for me," Harry said, holding up his hand, as it gained a slight reddish glow.

Hermione, who entered the Great Hall at this time, was greeted by the sight of Draco staring down Harry, whose hand was glowing a dull red. She watched Draco slowly turn and walk back to the Slytherin table. Hermione walked over to Harry and sat down, deciding not to bug him as he poked at his food with an annoyed expressing o his face.

"He is so very annoying," Harry finally said, after he ate some food and began calming down.

"Draco," Hermione stated.

"Yeah. He seems to think that, since I am joining up with you as friends again, he can save me from making a bad choice," Harry said, showing his frustration as he stabbed an orange with his fork rather than picking it up and adding it to his plate.

"Well he does not know why you left your friends," Hermione said, before eating some more.

"Yes. Though that reason has put a lot of strain on some of my friendships," Harry said, his eyes showing a slight bit of hurt.

"Who," Hermione asked, looking at Harry closely.

"Mostly the new friends I had been making last year. But Melody Myrtle, who Night requested I find since her own skills cannot locate ghosts, has been impossible to find. The reason for the request was because Luna and Night were her closest friends. Though I knew her and was a friend with her as well." Harry explained.

"Melody," Hermione said, speaking mostly to herself.

When Hermione thought about it she had not seen much of the female student ghost, even when Night was still living in the school. But this was, as Harry pointed out, because Melody would only hang out with the two ponies. But now, when Hermione carefully looked over this year she realized she had not seen the ghost anywhere. Not even in the bathroom that she was normally seen living in, which was odd as Melody was known to frequent the halls often to see what was going on around the school.

"I have not seen her at all this year either, now that I think about it." Hermione said thoughtfully.

"I hope she is okay," Harry said, before getting up.

"Where are you going? Class does not start for another hour today," Hermione asked.

"I have a few ponies to talk to, about a missing ghost," Harry said, before leaving the Great Hall.

Hermione nodded at this and went back to eating her breakfast as she thought more on this matter. She was guessing Harry had most likely thought that Melody like him was attacked. This made her wonder for a few minutes on what could be done to a ghost, before her own line of thinking was badly derailed. Could this mean she had been affected as well? For that matter, how would she have been affected? Was it simple compulsion charms or even something as bad as the magical binds that had been placed on Harry? Hermione at once got up and took off running after Harry.

Hermione found him just outside the main door, picking up speed. As she neared him she saw Night appear a few feet away. But she yelled out to catch their attention, so they would not fly, or teleport away to another location, at least not before Hermione had a chance to talk with Harry first. Thankfully Night and Harry both heard her and waited till she was by them.

"Well Hermione, what is wrong?" Night asked, noticing the slightly worried look Hermione had gained.

"Well, I had a thought about why none of the teachers were willing to take our suspicions seriously," Hermione said.

"Okay, you got my attention," Night said.

"Well, it came to me when I thought about what if the person who attacked Harry also went through other measures to make sure he never got his memories back. As such he would have likely put spells and charms on other people as well. To those that were not a risk of actually breaking the seals, they might have done some simple charm, or if they were being really careful they might have done magical seals for other people as well," Hermione explained.

"You do have a good point; it would explain why my stuffed animal body was removed, while Luna's was left behind, because I had a chance of breaking the binds on Harry. Even if those chances were rather slim at best," Night said thoughtfully.

"That, and they might have also put small binds on us as well. Though I am not fully sure on this," Hermione said.

"You think a magical bind might have been placed on you," Night stated thoughtfully.

"Possibly, it's hard to tell for sure without someone checking. But we have a bigger problem first," Hermione said, before gesturing to Harry.

Harry blinked for a second confused, before remembering the reason why he had come out here in the first place. He quickly explained the lack of anyone of them meeting up with Melody at all, over the last few days. Night listened carefully to this information. Then after Harry finished she remained quiet, a thoughtful expression on her face. Night, like Harry, knew that searching for a ghost was going to be beyond anything they had ever done before, and Night was pretty sure that any summoning spell they knew had a good chance of failing. Though that did not mean they would not try them anyway.

After about four minutes of thought, Night spoke, "Go about your day as you normally would. In the meantime, Luna and I will set about trying to figure out anyone that might have been affected, by a spell. Then from there we will start working on bringing those final things back around to normal. If we can."

"What about Melody?" Harry asked.

"We… we cannot do anything for her at this time. At least, not till we force your attacker, or whoever put these spells on you, out into the open and force him to reveal all he has done," Night said.

"Who do you think it is?" Hermione asked.

"Could be anyone, honestly. This could be caused by Dumbledore himself, and be some mad plan he came up with. Or it could be caused by the new teacher. It could even be a foreign plot, or an attack from Voldemort trying to get you killed during this Tournament," Night explained.

"That does leave a lot of possibilities open," Hermione said.

"Yes, now be off to class, I will have Rainbow bring Twilight down from the mountain so they can keep a watch on you today," Night said as she spread her wings.

"Okay, but if you can bring Applejack down as well, she has been stuck up there for a while now, and she would like to stretch her legs," Harry said.

"Will do," Night said, before bidding them both goodbye. She soon was on her way back up towards the mountain.

It was almost a week later, when they finally were able to check out all of Harry's friends to see if any had magical blocks placed on them. To everyone's great relief, no one had any blocks on them, but there were several spells and charms on the clothes they were wearing. These spells and charms were easy enough to remove, though Luna and Night tried to leave the spells that were used to keep the clothes in good shape. At this time, many of Harry's friends were informed about why Luna had disappeared. This was twofold, one reason was because they were seeing Luna and Night in their real bodies, the second being they were also meeting the other ponies.

Much to Harry's and Hermione's dislike, Night and Luna both requested a few things be kept quiet. Mostly plans they actually had going to catch whoever was after them. They also asked that till the last few moments of this year, they also refrain from telling anyone about the planned return trip. Hermione personally thought this was too much, but she was not about to disagree seeing as how far this person was willing to go to control Harry.

Unfortunately, hanging over all their heads was another slightly bigger problem. As in not three weeks time from then, was the first challenge of the Triwizard Tournament. There was only one big problem with this, none of them knew what the next task held for Harry yet, nor had he had a chance to practice. All in all it was going to be an interesting next few weeks.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

In the three weeks before the first task, things slowly started to become a little more chaotic. They needed to find out a way for harry to survive the first task, and fast. Harry had learned that he would have to face down a dragon from a surprising source. From this same source he also had received a good idea on how to win. In one spell. True, it was not a flashy idea, but it would more than keep Harry safe by keeping him out of range of the dragon's attack.

The task itself was to get a golden egg away from the mother dragon guarding it. The simple solution was to summon it, not very flashy or a good show but it would let Harry survive. Or at least Ludo Bagman thought it was a good idea for Harry to try this. Though for the life of the group, none of them could really figure out why he was helping Harry, seeing he was a judge. After a peek into his mind though, his reasoning became rather clear.

But it was not Ludo's help that was causing all this chaos. It was actually Luna and Night: both of them were having Harry, Hermione and his other friends looking up ways to combat dragons so Harry had more than just one plan before going into the arena. But their search was proving to be rather useless, as it took ten normal wizards to even cast a basic Stunning Spell that could stun a dragon.

For Harry to pull off something like that by himself, he would have to pool most, if not all, of his magic into one powerful spell. And even then there was a good chance it might not work. As such they had already ruled out a head-on fight with the dragon to defeat it. But as time got increasingly closer till only a day was left before the task was set to begin, they were running out of time.

The night before the task was to take place, Harry was sitting on a cloud rather high up, watching the moon slowly rise into the sky. It had become a forming habit of his recently, mostly to have some peace and quiet away from the others to let his mind calm down. It also helped him deal with the stress that would build during the day, which was caused by a number of things: friends trying to help, other classmates giving him dark and annoyed looks, the weird reporter that tried to get an interview with him on more than one occasion, and as always Ron and Draco.

As he looked up and noticed the first stars showing in the night sky, Harry noticed a shape pass over him. He guessed it was Rainbow Dash, as the flying figure was smaller than either Luna or Night. And her coat was not nearly as dark as either of them. Harry wondered why Rainbow was out, when normally at this time she would be helping Applejack collecting the firewood for the night.

Harry waved at Rainbow and was able to catch her attention as she flew by him again. She took a sharp turn and dove towards the cloud Harry was currently sitting on. When she was about to crash into it, she pulled up and landed without disturbing a wisp of the cloud.

"Hay Harry, you need something?" Rainbow asked, her voice upbeat.

"No, I was just surprised seeing you out here at this time. Aren't you normally preparing for the night with Applejack about now?" Harry asked.

"Well…" Rainbow's voice lost its upbeat sound as she looked down, a little depressed.

Harry got up and moved over to Rainbow, before kneeling down by her and quietly asking, "Is something wrong?"

"No. Nothing is wrong, why would you think something is wrong?" Rainbow said, a smile forming back on her face.

"I can tell you're lying," Harry said, looking Rainbow Dash in the eyes.

Rainbow held his gaze for a few moments before looking away, but not before he had seen the sadness and want in her eyes. He pulled her into a hug, causing Rainbow's breath to hitch for a few seconds. They stayed like this for a few minutes before Rainbow got herself together again.

"Okay, you got me," Rainbow said, backing up and lying down on the cloud with a small smile on her face.

Harry sat down by her. "So, are you going to tell me then?"

"Well… It's because I miss my home, my job, and my friends," Rainbow said.

"You haven't been away from your home like this before, have you," Harry stated, "Unable to reach it in less than a day's flight."

"Yes, and for this period of time. And without anything to do that would normally take my mind off this, other than helping Applejack set up for the nights, well..." Rainbow said, unable to finish the last part.

"It's okay, Rainbow, you will make it through this somehow, same as me," Harry said, smiling at her.

"I know," Rainbow said, letting out a small sigh.

Harry smiled as Rainbow closed her eyes and began to rub her back carefully. Rainbow blinked opening her eyes and shivered a little before asking, "Why are you doing that?"

"I think you could use a backrub to help relax you some," Harry said, stopping for a few seconds.

"Okay… just don't tell anyone, I have a reputation to keep up back at home," Rainbow said.

Harry chuckled a little and said, "I don't think anyone would think any less of you if they knew what was going on right now."

Rainbow nodded as Harry's hands played across her back, removing the tension that had been building. Soon she was almost asleep, before Harry finally stopped. Groaning she opened her eyes and pouted, giving a very wanting look for more. Harry though shook his head.

"I need to be back to my room soon so I can get some rest. I may sleep less than most, but I still need some sleep," Harry said.

"You could always sleep up here with me. I can remake clouds into a living space pretty quickly. So we could be warm through the night," Rainbow said, not wanting Harry to leave just yet.

"I am not the best with staying on clouds for a long period of time," Harry said, looking embarrassed.

"You cannot keep the spell going while you sleep?" Rainbow asked a little sadly.

"Well maybe, though I have not tried to stay in a cloud overnight. But if you really want I guess I could stay. But why do you want me to stay so much?" Harry asked.

"I'd like to sleep in the clouds again for a night, but I'd like some company too, and you're here, while Applejack and Twilight can't stay up here overnight." Rainbow said.

"Why is Twilight unable to stay up here?" Harry said, slightly curious.

"She could try, but she does not have the subconscious control to keep the spell going all night," Rainbow said, smiling a little at what had happened when Twilight had tried to spend the night at Rainbow's home.

"I take it she was rather unhappy the next morning?" Harry said, noticing the smile.

"Yes. I had moved my home over a lake for that night, just in case her spell gave out. It did and she ended up drenched, it was amazingly funny," Rainbow said, laughing a little.

"Well, as long as the cloud remains low enough over the lake, I will try," Harry said.

"Yes!" Rainbow said, jumping up.

Rainbow quickly moved the cloud over the lake and set about making it into a home, though careful to not make it look too house-like. Soon their home for the night was finished, though it was little more than a hollowed-out cloud, reinforced with magic only Pegasus Ponies could use to make sure it held together. It did not hold the strength that a normal Pegasus cloud home did, but it would keep for a few days.

Inside the cloud it looked like an almost normal one-room cabin, everything was set up against the walls. In the center, a little above the floor, seemed to float a cloud that was glowing with some weird energy. Harry walked over to it, a little curious as to what was causing the glow, but Rainbow stopped him before he could touch it.

"Don't touch it, that cloud contains some lightning to help with the lighting in this house," Rainbow said, before poking it carefully with her hoof, causing currents of energy to travel over the outer edge.

"That's really cool, but how did you do that? I thought only Unicorns could use magic?" Harry said slightly confused.

"They can," Rainbow said, lying down on one of the beds.

"Yet what you did here would be considered by many as magic," Harry explained.

"Well… I guess you are right, to any human this would seem like magic, but to us it's normal," Rainbow said, a thoughtful look on her face.

Harry nodded, before speaking, "I think all ponies have magic, but how that magic is used might just depend on the pony. After all, you, a Pegasus Pony, made a cloud into a home that seems… rather solid, and can make a light source from a cloud."

"Well, I guess you might be right, but figuring out things like that is not really my strong point. You should talk with Twilight and the others about that more than me," Rainbow said, ending in a yawn.

"Well, I guess it's bedtime then," Harry said.

"Yep," Rainbow said, her eyes already closed so she did not notice Harry walk over to her.

When Harry pulled her into a light hug and gave her a small kiss on the cheek, Rainbow opened her eyes in surprise, but Harry just gave her a smile and walked over to his bed and laid down. She felt a slight blush rise on her cheeks, but she shook her head and closed her eyes again. Soon the pair was asleep, neither of them having noticed Night, who had been watching them from a nearby cloud. A small smile graced her face as she flew off to the camping location.

The next morning came too quickly for Harry, as thanks to the cloud house's building materials the sunlight was rather bright, even if beautiful, inside the room. He was rather glad his control of the cloud walking spell had been good enough to keep him from falling through the clouds during the night. Getting up he noticed Rainbow was still asleep, and decided to wait for her at the entrance of the house.

As he waited outside the house he checked the time and noticed he still had a good while before the first task, which was to take place that afternoon. It gave him plenty of time to wait for his winged friend. It was not for another ten minutes that Rainbow started to wake up though. She yawned waking up, rather happy to feel clouds under her body again, making her think for a few seconds she was back at home, and the whole trip to that other world was nothing more than a bad dream. Though she did kind of wish Harry was real. But as she moved her hoof over to grab one of her books to read as she opened her eyes she realized it was not true.

Rainbow's hoof met a wall where her nightstand would normally be, and the room she was in was definitely not her home. She felt a sudden wave of sharp pain from the sadness, noticing Harry was not even here anymore either. She sighed trying to suppress her tears when the feeling of homesickness hit full force, but she couldn't hold it back anymore and soon she was crying.

Harry looked down into the house when he heard her crying, before he got up and ran back in to pull her into a tight hug. He was slightly surprised by the sight of the ever-cheerful Rainbow Dash crying, but considering her behavior the evening before, thought that was probably the problem: the dam breaking after she had finally cropped up her feelings too much.

Rainbow blinked as she was suddenly drawn into a hug. When she could see through her tears again, the sight before her helped lessen her pain. Harry had kept his promise, he had stayed, and he must have been just outside the door. Slowly she calmed down as Harry held her close, not letting her go once. Only when the tears finally stopped and she tried to rub her face with her hooves, did he loosen his hold on her, though he still kept her in his arms while he sat down beside her.

"S-s-sorry about that," Rainbow said, looking down at the floor almost in shame at her actions.

"It's okay," Harry said, running his hand along her back between her wings.

"No, it's not, I'm the toughest pony around, I'm not supposed to break down and lose it," Rainbow said, her frustration showing.

"Even the toughest of us will lose it sometimes. Don't be ashamed of yourself for crying," Harry said.

"It's just, I…" Rainbow started.

"Let it go, you're homesick. In a place that is basically black and white in comparison to your home world," Harry said, before teasing his hands over the joints where her wings connected to her back, causing her to shiver.

"Hay, don't, that tickles!" Rainbow said.

"I know," Harry said, teasing her slowly till she was having a laughing fit.

When Harry let up and Rainbow could breathe again she stood up and nuzzled her head against Harry and smiled, "Thanks… I needed that."

"You're welcome, Rainbow Dash," Harry said, a smile on his face.

"Well… I guess we should get going," Rainbow said, stretching out her wings before taking off into the air.

"Yep, I need a shower and a change of clothes, and then some food. And you need some food too, meet up with the others, I will be okay for today I'm sure," Harry said.

"I will tell Luna to head over to the castle's main doors," Rainbow said smirking, "I cannot let my new friend be hurt."

"Okay," Harry said with a smile.

With that the two of them left for where they needed to be for the day. As the day moved onwards, a worry began to set into the group of ponies and humans. The worry felt by Night, Luna, and Rainbow was more strongly noticeable. Night and Rainbow were often seen pacing, while Luna was often muttering to herself, trying to come up with another plan that might work, as she watched Harry go to his few morning classes. Harry's wizarding friends were dealing with the worry and nervousness a lot better, having dealt with this type of stress a lot more than the ponies had.

Then as Harry finally made his way over to where the first task would take place, Harry did start feeling a little worried. He was about to face down a dragon defending her nest, something that most anyone in their right minds would avoid at all costs. It made him wonder for a second how Spike, Twilight's assistant and a young dragon himself, had been taken from his family; though it was possible he had been an orphan to begin with.

As he entered the tent he was greeted by the sight of the other champions all waiting for the first task to begin. There was Victor Krum, the Durmstrang champion, standing over in a corner, who seemed to be staring rather hard at a pole as if trying to burn it down. Fleur Delacour, the Beauxbatons champion, was sitting on a chair, muttering quietly to herself. The last person in the tent besides Harry was Cedric Diggory, the real Hogwarts champion, or that's what many of the people at least believed. Harry agreed, but he was stuck in this Tournament under the same banner as Cedric, making him a Hogwarts champion as well.

As Harry sat down on a bench inside the tent, he could hear a great many people passing by it on their way to the stands not far away. He knew that many of them had placed bets, and his chances were the least. Not that he cared too much; he just wanted to make it through this tournament alive and leave this place for a new home. But as he waited for Ludo Bagman to show up to tell them what they were to do, though Harry was sure everyone already knew by now, their feelings of worry and dread only grew.

Finally, when Ludo did enter the tent with a rather loud greeting, it made nearly all of them jump, with only Cedric not drawing his wand. Ludo blinked in surprise at this sight and Harry, Victor and Fleur quickly put away their wands while the other judges entered the tent. Ludo collected himself quickly enough and beamed around the group.

"Well, here we are, ready for the first task. And I hope you have gathered all the courage you can, because this is going to be something else. Your job is simple: you are to collect a golden egg being guarded by a dragon. Once you have gotten the egg, you need to escape quickly to the tent with the red mark over it on the other side of the arena. At this time the handlers will deal with the dragon. Once you have reached the tent, Hogwarts' nurse, Madam Pomfrey, will tend to you while we set up the next dragon and decide the scores," Ludo said, his cheeriness carrying to his voice.

"How are we scored?" Krum asked.

"Each judge will give you a number from zero to ten. To get a perfect score of ten, you must show great skill by firstly getting the egg, but also by keeping yourself and the other eggs unharmed. Any mistakes will be held against you and counted against your overall score. A higher score will give you a great advantage in the final task," Ludo explained.

"Makes sense," Fleur said, mostly to herself.

"Now gather around, champions," Crouch, the second of the judges, with the heads of the schools being the last three, requested as he held up a bag, "Inside this bag are miniatures of the dragons you will face. You will each draw one, and on it will be a number. This number will indicate the order you go out. During this task, you will only be allowed out of the tent when it's your turn, so that you cannot see what your predecessors have done. Ladies first."

Fleur nodded and put her hand into the bag, and out of it drew a dragon miniature. It had a number two tied to its leg. Cedric took his chances next, and drew out a dragon with a number one on it. Harry stepped up, hoping his luck was with him, and drew a dragon with a number four on its leg. Lastly, Krum took the dragon with a three on it. They looked at their dragons, quickly recognizing the breeds.

Cedric, who was going first, had a Swedish Short-Snout. Fleur, who was next to take on her dragon, had drawn a Common Welsh Green. Krum, who was third in line, had drawn a Chinese Fireball. This left Harry with the worst draw of all of them, a Hungarian Horntail. Each of them looked at their models for a few seconds, noticing the rather scary details put into them, helping them more than an image with what their life-size counterparts would look like attacking them.

Ludo smiled and said that at the sound of the cannon, the first one, Cedric, would go out and face his dragon. After that, each Champion would wait their turn, entering only when they heard the sound of the cannon. They all nodded their understanding as the five judges left. Too soon the cannon sounded and Cedric left, looking rather pale as he left through the tent flap. Harry almost felt sorry for him, almost, Harry after all had to face a worse challenge.

Time passed rather slowly for the three still in the tent, and they were soon wishing the tent was soundproof. Ludo Bagman, who happened to be the commentator, was not helping their nerves. Soon though, it was time for Fleur to try her luck as Cedric somehow had gotten his egg. Fleur gave Harry and Krum a weak smile, before Harry wished her luck. Fleur thanked Harry, and then, as the cannon sounded again, she left the tent to try her own chances.

Like with Cedric, Harry found himself wishing the tent had a silencing spell placed on it. But he was thankful that Fleur got her egg much quicker than Cedric had. And soon after this it was just Harry in the tent. But as the flap closed on Krum's back, two ponies and one human appeared in the tent. Harry blinked then smiled, his worries for a few moments forgotten. It was Luna, Rainbow and Hermione.

"Hay Harry, how you holding up?" Rainbow asked.

"Well, could be better, find out anything useful?" Harry asked.

"Nothing really, Night has been watching each match, but they have not used anything so far that would be of real use to you," Luna said.

Harry nodded sighing, "Well, I guess that should be expected."

"But… Rainbow did have an idea after she met up with us this morning," Hermione said, a smile on her face.

"Yeah, as you flew your broom back I realized if you were unable to summon the egg, you could summon your broom to your side. And I have seen how skilled you are, you could keep up with me possibly in the air, so avoiding the dragon and drawing it away from its nest before swooping in to grab the egg should not be that hard for you," Rainbow said, positively beaming with her joy at finding a good idea.

"While I don't like the idea, it does have its strong points and would get you a good point rating with the judges," Luna said.

"I agree, but I see one problem. I don't have my broom with me, and I doubt I can summon it from the school way out here," Harry said.

"Yes, I thought of that, and set it up outside the tent," Hermione said with a small smirk, "Luna told me the idea after you had gotten to the tent and I ran and got your broom as fast as possible."

"Thanks, I hope I don't need it though," Harry said.

"I understand, but now we at least have a backup idea," Luna said.

"Yes, thankfully," Harry said, before jumping as the cannon sounded.

Harry gulped and sighed getting up, and walked to the tent exit. He looked behind him once, and sighed again. He saw before him more than reason enough to survive. With that, he threw open the tent flap and exited the safety of the tent to test his own luck at getting the golden egg.

* * *

((

Hello again to all.

Well I have good and bad news.

First some stuff you would like to know.

I have recovered a few stories fully.

The Dragon Tailed Fox Moon Magic Fairy Ninja Dragon's Magic Dark Secrets

Stories I need to reproof and once again send to my beta. XenoFox Pokémon Ninja Hermony Cat

I have also Regained much of my music, pics, and video's

The bad news

As you noticed I need to reproof read three stories. Before they head over to my beta. My computer seems to have taken a hit when everything went down and is not working at the top of its game. And my car is in a lot worse shape than I though.

So depending on what happens I will be out a computer and a car for a while.

Good news.

I might be getting a computer or laptop from my mom, who is thinking about getting a new one. The computer is in good shape, and works amazing better than mind currently.

Also I might be getting my younger brothers car, which is also working, even if it is not in the best of shape. it is better than nothing.

So as of now these stories shall be continued:

The Dragon Tailed Fox Moon Magic Fairy Ninja Dragon's Magic Dark Secrets

While these are on a short hold while I do some proofing for them, again.

Pokémon Ninja Harmony Cat XenoFox

Lastly I thank everyone for their well wishes, and support. It helped a lot.

Espo

PS. I am working on two story ideas.

Changer Ch 1-5 was written now 1 is only here.

And a currently unnamed story, both I wish to make into books.

If anyone is willing to help send a PM and I will get into contact with you.

All are Transformation based stories.

Oh one last thing, I have three more stores for fanfiction in the works, one a one shot, another for Naruto/MLP, and lastly a Digimon/naruto idea. Hope to get them out soon bye

))


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Harry dodged behind a boulder the moment he entered the arena, just in case flames were shot at him right away. Thankfully this was not needed as the dragon had not noticed him yet. Peering around the rock Harry took a look around the arena. It was easily hundred to a hundred fifty feet across. In the center about fifty feet from him was the Hungarian Horntail. Around the outside edge of the arena were large boulders and rocks that would provide relatively good cover, but anything within twenty feet of the dragon was completely flat.

"Well, that makes it easier if I need to use a broom, now where is that egg," Harry said to himself, looking for a glint of gold by the dragon's paws.

But he did not see anything. So, moving forward around the edge of the arena, he began to search for the egg under the dragon. Soon he was able to spot the clutch of eggs, with in the center of it the golden egg, slightly bigger than the others. Channeling his magic into his hand, skipping the use of his wand, he focused on a Levitation Charm. The golden egg began to glow a light green with a touch of blue.

But before he could then bring it towards him, the dragon noticed him. Harry was forced to release the spell on the egg as he hid behind a rock, as the dragon roared and released a column of flames at him. Around the rock's edge he saw flames billow and dissipate, before they appeared again. Harry quickly used his magic and put up a shield to protect him from the heat and flames.

"Oh, that was a close one, good job using that shield spell in time," a loud voice said, echoing out over the arena.

Harry looked up and realized he was near what had to be the judges' box. The flames then blocked his view of it again, so he could not see who was sitting where. But as the flames washed over his shield again, he figured it was best not to worry about those details. When the dragon finally stopped attacking his position, Harry peered around the rock again to see what it was doing.

As Harry moved around a little more, not letting his shield fall, he noticed that the rock was glowing a very dull red, showing that the dragon's flames were a lot more powerful than he had thought. Either that, or someone had used a spell on the dragon to make its flames stronger. Next he noticed the dragon was still watching him, but had not done anything yet, even as he showed more of his body. Perhaps the dragon thought it had given him a good warning.

He then checked the nest and sighed. The dragon had moved its tail and not only was it blocking the nest from view, it looked to him like her tail was resting lightly on top of the eggs as well, giving them further protection.

Harry groaned as he realized this meant that summoning the egg away would take more magic than before, if it was even possible. That did not mean he would just give up on plan A, he would at least try once more. Quickly he focused his magic again, and pictured the egg in his mind. Harry watched as the tail shifted and soon an object flew out from it towards Harry, but before it could completely clear the range of the dragon's own paws, Harry's magic lost control of it and the egg came crashing to the stony ground.

"Come on," Harry growled out, before dodging behind the stone again, throwing up a shield as the dragon sent another blast of flames his way.

"It seems Harry lost control of his magic," Ludo Bagman said, not having seen Harry use wandless magic.

Harry rolled his eyes; he had not lost control of his magic. Someone had either cast a spell, or activated a rune making his magical control of the egg end. But when he was able to peek out again, he noticed that the dragon had not tried to recollect the egg as its own. That meant he just had to get close enough to grab the egg and run away with it, instead of getting it away from the dragon. He debated if he should try and summon the egg again, he knew there was a good chance that whatever had blocked his spell before would block it again. But he wasn't about to give up on an easy win that fast.

Harry decided it was at least worth one last try, but as his magic surrounded the egg to pick it up, the magic was blasted off of it. Harry was not sure how this had happened; maybe a rune activated so the egg could not be magically summoned past a certain point or something like that. But now he knew he would need to use his backup plan.

Giving another silent thanks to Rainbow Dash, Harry cast another Summoning Charm, this time focusing on his broom. He smirked as he heard the sound it of cutting through the air, and not a second later it was floating right in front of him. Leaping onto it, he sent his magic through the broom and took off in a blur.

As he flew away, the dragon shot another column of flame at him. It missed Harry, but it hit the judges' box. Harry grinned seeing the shocked looks of the judges even if the shield protecting the box dealt with the flames just fine. Harry soared up high into the air and, looking back down at the dragon, knew this was now his game, and his rules. He decided it was time for him to try something on his broom, that he never had a reason for before to try. The Wronski Feint, a move he had read about before, though in this case he would not have someone chasing him.

Harry climbed on till he could just make out the dragon lying on the ground. From this distance he could also just make out the golden speck that was the egg he had to retrieve. At once he turned his broom on end and dove straight towards the ground, pushing his broom faster, increasing his speed with magic as well.

Harry's plan at this point was simple: since the dragon no longer seemed to be focusing on him, he would dive and simply grab the egg and be gone before the dragon could react. He knew that Luna and Night were going to yell at him later, but this was going to be one of the few clean shots he was going to get at grabbing the egg. And in some ways it was safer than trying to bait the dragon away from its nest just to dive in and risk getting hit by its claws.

But before he could even get close enough to enter the stands, let alone grab the egg, the dragon seemed to spot him and turned its head towards him before unleashing a blast of flames right along where he was going to be flying. Harry at once swerved clean out of the way and began climbing high into the air again. It seemed the dragon was keeping a closer eye on him than Harry had thought. Harry flew up higher than before, and slowed his broom to a stop. Looking down from this height he tried to assess the situation and see if there was another way to grab the egg.

Then an idea popped into his head, about Rainbow Dash to be precise. Harry remembered Night telling him how a young filly had won a competition and saved a friend by performing what was known as a Sonic Rainboom. While Harry was not sure he could pull off this move fully, he was sure using the same long dive he could gain enough speed to strike before the dragon even had time to spot or react to him.

With this in mind, Harry pointed his broom skyward and pushed it forward climbing rapidly. He knew that while this speed would be more than enough for the dragon to be unable to react to in time, it was also very possible that the same could be true for himself. But still, he did not have many other options that he could think of, that would work without putting him at the same or greater amount of risk. He would have to fly by feel and magic alone.

So onward and upward he kept climbing till even Hogwarts was merely a speck on the ground. This high up Harry was finding it a little hard to breathe. He knew it was now or never. He turned straight down towards the ground and started pushing his magic once again into his broom.

Down by the stands, Night, Luna and Hermione were staring up into the sky confused at what Harry was trying. Rainbow though was the first one to figure it out and at once started muttering under her breath, shaking her head in worry. Applejack, hearing this, looked at Rainbow and blinked in surprise at the look of sheer worry on her face.

"RD, what's the matter?" Applejack asked.

"I can't believe he's going to try that!" Rainbow said, her voice filled with worry.

"Try what?" Applejack asked confused, drawing the attention of the other ponies.

"He's going to try for a Sonic Rainboom!" Rainbow said, looking up suddenly as she spotted Harry heading towards the stadium, being the only one who actually could currently.

"Harry you fool, don't do this!" Night said, fear filling her voice, as she heard what Rainbow said.

They had good reason to worry. Not only was Harry trying something that was considered next to impossible in their own world, but he was also trying it in a place where he would have to make a hairpin turn, just to avoid killing himself on the ground. Still, there was nothing they could do about it now, except hope for the best.

As Harry drew closer to the stands, everyone was able to finally spot him, thanks to a weird glow that seemed to surround him, just barely visible in the daylight. Then, without warning, he suddenly picked up speed even more than before, leaving a weird glow trailing behind him like a long rope. Faster than their eyes could follow he swooped low and grabbed the egg before speeding away as the sound of a sonic boom was heard, shaking the entire stands and scaring many of the occupants seated in them. Harry used his speed and sped away from the arena making a wide loop while trying to slow himself down. Then as he turned back towards the stands he slowed himself more and spotted the tent that would be the one where he needed to end this task.

Lying low on his broom the egg held firmly in his hand Harry slowed his flying down as he approached the stands. He then dove for a few seconds and put the brakes on, slowing his broom rapidly right before he would enter into the tent, leveling out as he did so. He entered into the tent, stopping with his broom's end just half a foot inside the tent flaps.

Harry floated there for a few seconds as he calmed his thumping heart before he finally dismounted his broom. Madam Pomfrey walked over to him and grabbed his broom from his hand before steering him over to a bed to be checked over. Before Harry could even protest she had already started a scanning spell. She nodded happily, before grabbing his hand and arm, the one he had used to grab the egg, checking it carefully for signs of damage.

Pomfrey gained a very confused look, but then said, "Okay, you are free to go."

"Is something wrong?" Harry asked, noticing her confusion.

"Well, you just passed the speed of sound, before grabbing an egg off a gravel covered ground unharmed. Anyone with any sense of reason in them, would have realized or thought you had been hurt by either the air pressure or by hitting the ground. But then again, this is you I am talking about, and you seem to like defying logic at times," Pomfrey said, before walking off muttering something about crazy people and their plans.

Harry laughed lightly at this before getting up and looking around the tent that acted as their finishing point. He noticed it was empty except for Madam Pomfrey, which meant the other Champions had made it through without being majorly injured. As he looked about for the exit, Hermione appeared through, what had to have been another tent door, and probably the exit, and quickly pulled him into a hug while telling him how good he had been in the first part of the Tournament.

It took Harry a good couple of minutes to calm down Hermione, who blushed a little bit for losing her normal calm that badly. She then took Harry out of the tent so they could see Harry's score. From the tent exit Harry could see the judges' stand just fine. It seemed Dumbledore sat at the far left, followed by Igor Karkaroff, the Durmstrang Headmaster, and Madam Maxime, the Headmistress of Beauxbatons. Next was Ludo Bagman, then was Barty Crouch, both of whom were department heads at the Ministry of Magic.

Harry's score was three nines, a ten from Ludo, and a seven from Igor. Hermione told him that put him currently in the lead, Fleur and Cedric behind him currently tied at forty while Krum was in last with only thirty. Harry shook his head at this. It did not really matter what they had given him, he had survived through the first challenge, that was what mattered.

Hermione smiled as she went to leave with Harry to see the others, but before they could Ludo Bagman came running over, saying he needed to see the Champions for a few moments, before they left and celebrated the great wins. Once they all had been gathered back in the tent they had started in, Ludo looked around at them all, his eyes filled with joy and praise.

"That was a truly great job today," Ludo said, as if he was talking to his team.

"Thanks, I guess," Harry said, speaking for the group.

"Now, the next task will not take place till February, but don't think that gives you time to slack off. Now, this last task as you know tested your courage and cunning in the face of danger. This next task will test your knowhow and understanding of the world. As such we have given you a clue that has all you need to complete it," Ludo said.

The four champions looked rather confused, before Krum figured it out and spoke up, "The eggs. They have some hidden message."

"Yes, if you notice at the top is a latch. No, don't open it yet, trust me, but when you open it, it will tell you what you need to know," Ludo said, with a knowing tone as the four looked at their egg closely for a few seconds, before Ludo sent them on their way.

Harry met up with Hermione outside the tent and told her what Ludo had told him. Hermione shrugged as not far in front of them appeared a woman that Harry would soon recognize anywhere he went. Beside her was floating a piece of paper and a quill, and Harry and Hermione guessed she was a reporter really quickly.

This was confirmed in about three seconds as she spoke, "Rita Skeeter, Head Journalist for the Daily Prophet."

"Nice to meet you," Harry said.

"Same I think," Hermione said, looking at the woman closely, she had heard things about Rita Skeeter before, none good either.

"If I may, could I have an interview with you two, and a few of your friends?" Rita asked, smiling.

"I think I'd rather not currently," Harry said honestly.

"That's a shame. But I will let you decide later after looking at this photo, then you will have three days to contact me, before I write what I want," Rita said, handing them a envelope before walking off.

Harry looked at it before opening the envelope carefully and looking at the picture within it. The picture was surprisingly in full color, but that is not what caught Harry's attention. The content did. It was of him sitting on a cloud, and not far from him were two of his pony friends. Both Luna and Night were right by him. This wasn't a big worry, as everyone at school already knew those two. But when Rainbow flew into the picture he realized just how much trouble this photo could cause, as he could explain away Night and Luna, but Rainbow was another matter entirely.

"Well, we are in trouble again," Harry said, summing the entire situation up in a few words.


End file.
